FTC fines Razer for every cent made selling bogus “N95 grade” RGB masks

MrGuvernment

MrGuvernment

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Anyone silly enough to have bought one of these?

FTC fines Razer for every cent made selling bogus “N95 grade” RGB masks
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...-cent-made-selling-bogus-n95-grade-rgb-masks/

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week a proposed settlement [PDF] against Razer that would see the tech company pay $1,171,254.33 for its misleading claims about the Zephyr RGB face mask. Razer marketed the device as offering capabilities similar to those of an N95 respirator.
On October 21, 2021, Razer began selling the Zephyr and its replacement filters. Razer continued to sell the mask until January 2022 and kept pushing the filters until July 2022, according to the FTC's complaint [PDF].

Per the FTC, when Razer.com listed the Zephyr in 2021, it said that the mask offered "replaceable N95 Grade filters" and that Zephyr was "FDA-registered and lab-tested for 99 percent BFE [bacterial filtration efficiency]" and offered "greater protection compared to standard disposable/cloth masks, and filters air both inhaled and exhaled to safeguard you and others around you." Razer's site also reportedly said that the mask was "not tested specifically against the COVID-19 virus, but offers the same functionality and adequate protection due to its 99 percent BFE rating.”

The FTC's complaint, filed in the US District Court for the Central District of California, contains examples—from online statements from Razer's CEO to posts on Razer's social media accounts and website—describing the Zephyr as offering N95 or N95 grade capabilities since at least January 2021.
However, the FTC said that Razer never got the Zephyr tested by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health or the US Food and Drug Administration and that the Zephyr never received N95 certification.

“[Razer] falsely claimed, in the midst of a global pandemic, that their face mask was the equivalent of an N95 certified respirator,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

FTC says Razer knew Zephyr wasn’t N95 equivalent​

The "99 percent BFE rating" that Razer touted only referred to the mask's filters, however, and per the FTC's complaint: "Razer had no evidence that the mask as a whole would offer adequate protection against the COVID-19 virus based solely on the BFE characteristic of the filter material."
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Fewer than 6 percent of US customers refunded ... so far​

On January 13, 2022, after pressure from reviewers and Razer's global PR director, Razer publicly backtracked on its claims. In an email to customers, Razer said that while the Zephyr's filters were "tested for 95 percent Particulate Filtration Efficiency (PFE) and 99 percent Bacterial Filtration Efficiency (BFE) ... the wearable by itself is not a medical device nor certified as an N95 mask." Razer also said it would remove all references to "N95 Grade Filter" from marketing materials. However, the FTC said that only customers who bought the mask from Razer's website or provided their emails to physical Razer stores when buying a mask received the email.

Further, Razer's email reportedly failed to mention that the company offered full refunds. Due to Razer declining refunds for users outside the 14-day purchase window or who had used or opened the mask and/or filters, Razer reportedly refunded fewer than 6 percent of Zephyr purchases in the US.

However, the proposed settlement against Razer includes a $100,000 civil penalty, plus $1,071,254.33, which the FTC said is equal to the amount of revenue Razer made from the Zephyr and will go toward refunding "defrauded consumers."

Razer didn't respond to Ars' request for comment before this story's publication. We'll update if we hear back.
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I remember this thing.

I thought the whole "gamer aesthetic" on a mask was ridiculous, but I guess I assumed they were a reputable enough co på y that they actually went through proper testing and certification.

I hope they throw the book at them.
 
I was gonna get one to be silly at work since they were requiring it, but IIRC these went on sale after most places stopped needing them.
 
Darunion said:
I was gonna get one to be silly at work since they were requiring it, but IIRC these went on sale after most places stopped needing them.
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That and you had to download and install Razer Synapse, create a Razer account and register the mask online via Bluetooth connection to a PC in order to turn the RGB on.






Not really but it's sad that it sounded believable.
 
Tsumi said:
You actually thought they were a reputable company? :ROFLMAO:
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I mean, they aren't some "brand name generator name" Chinese company that didn't exist 3 years ago.

They are jointly headquartered in California and Singapore.

I've never owned anything of theirs, but a friend of mine had the original Razer Boomslang high dpi ball mouse back in 2001, so I know they've been around for quite a while.

I mean, the Boomslang was probably the least comfortable mouse I ever tried using (I had a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer optical mouse at the time I think, and tested my friends Boomslang and hated it) so maybe they aren't very good at what they do, but its not like they are some company that came out of nowhere.
 
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Zarathustra[H] said:
I mean, they aren't some "brand name generator name" Chinese company that didn't ecist 3 years ago.

They are jointly headquartered in California and Singapore.

I've never owned anything of theirs, but a friend of mine had the original Razer Boomslang high dpi ball mouse back in 2001, so I know they've been around for quite a while.

I mean, the Boomslang was probably the least comfortable mouse I ever tried using (I had a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer optical mouse at the time I think) and tested my friends Boomslang and hated it) so maybe they aren't very good at what they do, but its not like they are some company that came out of nowhere.
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Razer is one of those companies that got famous due to their marketing department, not due to the quality of the products they made. I never owned anything but their phone, myself, but I did use them at a LAN shop back in 2005 and I thought they felt just one step above the OEM peripherals that prebuilts came packaged with. I think it was the original Copperhead that they used.

Some people swear by them, but I don't get it. The one product I did use of theirs was the Razer Phone 2, which was good for the price I paid for it. It was easy enough to remove all the Razer software without needing to root it. I'd probably still be using it if the case didn't shatter when I dropped it last year.
 
Armenius said:
Razer is one of those companies that got famous due to their marketing department, not due to the quality of the products they made. I never owned anything but their phone, myself, but I did use them at a LAN shop back in 2005 and I thought they felt just one step above the OEM peripherals that prebuilts came packaged with. I think it was the original Copperhead that they used.

Some people swear by them, but I don't get it. The one product I did use of theirs was the Razer Phone 2, which was good for the price I paid for it. It was easy enough to remove all the Razer software without needing to root it. I'd probably still be using it if the case didn't shatter when I dropped it last year.
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They arent bad. Inversely i don't get the hate either. I have a few of their products, not gonna go around with stickers on my car for them or anything. $25 deathadder mice work fine for what i need.
 
I've owned two Razer laptops, one from 2015 the other from 2021. Love 'em. They are the next best thing to a Macbook running Windows. I think their laptops are their strongest product line. Huge trackpad and little to no chassis flex. Quality.

I've also owned a couple of their keyboards. Mixed bag there in terms of quality. I think their QA has gotten better recently though.

I've owned about 8 of their mice over the past 20 years. Again, mixed bag in terms of quality. I think they've recently brute force solved the problem I had with their mice by going with optical switches. As far as I'm concerned, they found the perfect shaped mouse with the original DeathAdder two decades ago, and they've wisely continued to not fuck with that formula. So I keep buying.

I've only used their customer support once, about 7 years ago because I did a stupid thing in my laptop BIOS, but had a good experience.

When their peripherals break or wear out, I just toss them aside and get new ones. Maybe that's what they expect? They are the king of marketing and branding, imo. Their stuff looks good and their presentation is good. It's their historically questionable QA that prevents me from recommending most of their product line.

Nowadays, when I don't care about looks but want something that will last I will see what Logitech is doing. But Logitech doesn't make everything Razer does, so I'm always checking in on what Razer is doing.

Razer Synapse is whatever... It's not like Logitech is doing any better on the software front either.
 
First thought was to wonder if they was not some program that reward company to make mask at the time that they took advantage of (ridiculous consumer product for sure, but maybe not ridiculous commercial decision to do it for that reason)
 
Zarathustra[H] said:
I mean, they aren't some "brand name generator name" Chinese company that didn't exist 3 years ago.

They are jointly headquartered in California and Singapore.

I've never owned anything of theirs, but a friend of mine had the original Razer Boomslang high dpi ball mouse back in 2001, so I know they've been around for quite a while.

I mean, the Boomslang was probably the least comfortable mouse I ever tried using (I had a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer optical mouse at the time I think) and tested my friends Boomslang and hated it) so maybe they aren't very good at what they do, but its not like they are some company that came out of nowhere.
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To me they lost all credibility when they pushed Synapse 2.0 account requirements. It was frustrating getting Windows to not automatically update Synapse to 2.0 (this was pushed through Windows driver updates). At least Logitech and Steelseries don't constantly nag you to login by default.
 
Honestly my take on this, now that I have thought about it is that it was likely ignorance.

I work in medical devices. I am exposed to the regulatory environment to get a medical device to market on a daily basis, and understand that you can't just launch something without going through a registration, regulatory and safety process of some kind. I am not familiar with how NIOSH does things, but I at least know enough based on my FDA experience that I know I probably can't just launch based on my own opinions about something, and that I likely need some level of pre-markwt approval for something like this.

Silicon Valley - however - is steeped in the tradition of "move fast, fail fast and break thingsxl". This is not compatible at all with the regulatory environment in a regulated industry.

23 And Me also learned this the hard way when they first introduced genetic disease risk detection into their product without going through an FDA process for in-vitro diagnostics. They got their pee-pee's slapped HARD. To those of us in the medical device industry we just could not understand how they thought they could just push forward without first getting approval, but apparently the mindset and groupthink that exists in the tech industry of just doing whatever you want and letting the regulatory framework and market catch up around you is so strong that they didn't even think to ask the question. (Or they were so completely out of touch that they thought they could bully FDA in just giving them what they want like they seem to be able to do with many other regulators, hehe)
 
I have one, I completely wore it to work and other places. I was actually surprised how many people recognized what it was while out at public places.

Yea, having to use the app to control stuff was annoying.
 
Now make it 100x that and maybe, just maybe, some companies will think twice about making deceptive/misleading/false claims about their products....

Nah, who am I kidding here, this will never happen because so many of these companies have soooo many stooges in washington in their back pockets :(
 
FrgMstr said:
I had a friend of the family give me a new one last weekend. I gave a case of 50 to his grandfather to use at the high school he teached at 20 years ago. Had 15 in the box in the attic.

He laser engraved the HardOCP logo on it.
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PXL_20240501_201229828.MP.jpg
 
dogDAbone said:
Now make it 100x that and maybe, just maybe, some companies will think twice about making deceptive/misleading/false claims about their products....

Nah, who am I kidding here, this will never happen because so many of these companies have soooo many stooges in washington in their back pockets :(
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In that space (health product), companies think a lot about it, people whole jobs make sure cream make people looking at you think you are younger and not saying anything about making the skin younger even word like relaxing can be removed from bottle by the team of lawyers dedicated at avoiding fines.
 
I can remember the early days when Razer didn't even own razer.com (I assume due to domain squatter?)

Their website was something like razerzone.com or something. Always thought it was a weird and unintuitive thing to remember.
 
MooCow said:
I still have mine in the garage.
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I still daily three of the original Ratpadz. One at my main desk, one on my testbench rig, and I even brought one to work.

Sadly at some point I lost my original one I bought way back. It had that little Silver Ratpadz logo on it, but that eventually mostly wore off. At some point I misplaced it during a move, which makes me sad.
 
FrgMstr said:
IIRC Robert Krakow founded Razer and he was the owner of Everglide, the guy that sued me for making Ratpadz. If f that tells you anything about Razer...
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I'm actually still using the one I bought back in 2002 believe it or not. Got my money's worth out of that purchase.
 
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